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Ohio State linebacker Robert Reynolds is unlikely to
receive any warm wishes from the Wisconsin faithful.
On a third-and-15 from the Buckeyes 28-yard line with a
little more than five minutes left in the third quarter, Wisconsin quarterback
Jim Sorgi stepped up in the pocket and ran, picking up eight yards before Ohio
State’s defense closed in, with Reynolds and A.J. Hawk combing to make the play.
After the play, video replay showed Reynolds kneeing Sorgi
once in the head and thrusting his right hand against Sorgi’s throat as the
Wisconsin signal caller was pinned to the turf. This continued until Wisconsin
center Donovan Raiola and other players helped move Reynolds off the pile that
had formed on Wisconsin’s quarterback. Sorgi was slow getting up, was helped off
the field and did not return.
“He has a neck injury,” Wisconsin coach Barry Alvarez said.
“He’s having a hard time breathing.”
Wisconsin receiver Lee Evans said that following the play,
“everybody just kind of went off for a while. That is one of the—that is
something that you just don’t do. Ohio State is a great program but for those
guys to come out do something like that to our quarterback is one of the lowest
things I have seen done in a football game.”
In the midst of Evans’ comments Alvarez interjected: “We
won’t comment on it any more. You can see the film. We had a player who couldn’t
play any more in the game. That is enough said.”
Matt Schabert replaced Sorgi and played well, completing
two of three passes for 104 yards, including a 79-yard touchdown connection with
Lee Evans. Schabert also contributed a clutch third down with a six-yard run
around left end. Schabert made a good play fake to tailback Booker Stanley to
set up the run and had the presence of mind to stay in bounds and keep the clock
running.
“I have been in there before,” Schabert said. “I just went
back to those times that I had been in, took a couple breaths and just realized
that we had the lead when I came in and I just had to be a smart decision
maker.”
After the game, though, discussion flowed to Sorgi.
“He is our leader,” Schabert said. “If somebody does
something like that to him and they think it was kind of cheap then everybody
has got his back. This is a really close knit team and the guys were really
fired up and wanted to rally around that hit and really win the game for him.”
“We was pumped,” receiver Brandon Williams said. “They just
pumped us up even more when you try to hurt our quarterback. That is one of the
nucleuses of our team. So we had to come out and retaliate legally.”